Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails
by PurpleCardi
Summary: A series of short, fluffy ficlets about Jane, Maura, and their five-year-old son.
1. Trick-Or-Treat

**A/N: I hope you enjoy this fluffy little ficlet-the first of what I'm hoping will be many. Comments are definitely welcome and feel free to let me know if there's anything in particular that you want me to write about. :)**

* * *

It was the first Halloween that their five-year-old son Caleb was going trick-or-treating and Jane couldn't stop watching as Maura put the finishing touches on his costume. At the beginning of the month she had made a list of costume suggestions for him, but Caleb refused all of them. His heart was set on being Spider-Man and, if Spider-Man was what their little guy wanted to wear as his first costume, then Spider-Man was the costume they were going to buy for him.

"I'm ready to go now!" Caleb said as he began to fidget.

Their little man grabbed his plastic trick-or-treating bucket shaped like a pumpkin and had one hand on the handle of the bucket and the other securely cupping Maura's hand.

Jane was going to stay home and pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters, so Caleb knew it was up to him as Spider-Man to protect his mommy Maura from all the ghosts and goblins walking around on Halloween night.

"You're safe with me, Mommy," Caleb reassured her while he held tight to her hand.

When they approached the first house in their neighborhood, Caleb looked behind him and saw a group of older kids in scary costumes, but even though they were more than twice his age, he showed no fear. As far as Caleb was concerned, he was Spider-Man and he was going to protect his mommy and anyone else who might need protection.

"Trick-or-treat," Caleb beamed when the lady answered the door. After a miniature chocolate bar was placed in his bucket, Caleb made sure to thank her before turning around to leave.

While approaching the sidewalk, Caleb stopped Maura and handed her his first ever piece of Halloween candy. "This is for you, Mommy," Caleb informed her. "Ma told me you never went trick-or-treating as a kid and I think everyone should get to trick-or-treat."

Maura knelt down to Caleb's level so she could give her little man a kiss on the cheek. Caleb was their pride and joy and she was overwhelmed with how generous and thoughtful he had become. She and Jane were raising a well-mannered little boy and Maura could see him becoming a chivalrous young man someday.

"Mommy, do you know why I wanted to be Spider-Man for Halloween?"

Maura smiled at him. "Is it because you like the Spider-Man movies?"

"No," Caleb shook his head. "It's because Spider-Man is really strong like Ma and good at science like you. You're both like Spider-Man and you're both my heroes."


	2. Both Of Theirs

**A/N: Thank you for all of your lovely comments. I hope you enjoy this next little ficlet. :)**

* * *

The Patriots were playing, he didn't have to go to school, and his Ma had a day off from work. It was all the makings of a perfect day for Caleb and he didn't want to waste another second in bed.

Having taken a bath the night before, Caleb hurried out of bed and grabbed his Patriots jersey and a pair of jeans from his chest of drawers. Without any struggle, Caleb was able to change into his clothes and make an attempt at combing his curly hair.

"Ma!" he called out while running to his parents' room. "Ma! The Patriots are playing today!"

While he was running to their room, Jane popped out from the bathroom in the hallway and grabbed her son. "Intercepted!" she said after lifting him up. The five-year-old was now being held tight by his mom and she had no intentions of letting him go no matter how much he squirmed.

"The Patriots are playing!" Caleb reminded her.

Jane playfully tapped his little nose. "In two hours," she reminded him. "That gives you plenty of time to do your chores before the game starts."

"Okay," Caleb sighed. "But I can't do my chores if you don't let me go."

Once her son had his two feet securely on the ground, Jane pulled her phone out and began to scroll while Caleb waited impatiently. "I set this alarm to go off in an hour," Jane said as she handed the phone to her son. "If you can finish your chores in an hour instead of two hours, we can play catch outside until the game starts."

That was all the incentive Caleb needed. Before the alarm went off, Caleb was able to put his toys away, feed Bass and Jo Friday, make his bed, and carry his clothes hamper from his bedroom to the laundry room.

Caleb was dressed to play outside, but he remembered his mom was only wearing a tank top and jeans. _She's going to be cold,_ he thought. After grabbing a football from his closet, Caleb hurried to his moms' closet and pulled out her lucky sweatshirt that she wore on game days.

Jane and Caleb tossed the football back and forth in the front yard and used football terminology that Maura didn't exactly understand, but she enjoyed the sight of her wife and son spending quality time together.

Caleb was the splitting image of Jane. He had _her_ unruly curly hair, _her_ dark eyes, _her_ dimples, and _her _olive skin. Biologically, he was Jane's son, but the moment she heard him talk about the direction of the wind effecting how the ball travels, Maura realized Caleb was more like her than she had ever imagined.


	3. Girls Are Weird

**A/N: Thank you for all your kind words and an extra special thank you to mrj726 for suggesting a chapter about Caleb acting up in school. :)**

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Caleb's preschool teacher had called him an exceptional student, but Jane and Maura noticed that his behavior had changed in kindergarten. Over the past month, he had been told numerous times to 'pull a tag.' It was a system that Jane remembered all too well from her kindergarten career. At the start of the day, every student had a green tag next to their name and if they acted up they would have to change that green tag to a yellow tag as a warning. Acting up twice in the same day would result in changing the yellow tag to a red tag and a phone call or, now, an email to the child's parents. Jane had often changed her green tag to a yellow tag for talking out of turn or the occasional roughhousing, but getting in trouble wasn't expected of Caleb. Jane and Maura thought of him as their sweet little boy, but their sweet little boy had pulled a red tag for the first time that day.

Jane received an email no more than fifteen minutes after picking up Caleb from school. She had planned on treating her son to some ice cream, but instead she drove straight home while Caleb sulked in the backseat.

"I didn't do anything, Ma," Caleb insisted, but a red tag meant he had acted up twice and Jane wasn't about to let him get away with what he had done.

"Caleb, you pulled a girl's hair," Jane pointed out. "You pulled her hair and then took her crayons from her."

"So?" Caleb asked. "It's just Mackenzie. She kissed me. Did the teacher tell you she kissed me? It was gross so I pulled her hair and when she tried to hold my hand, I took her crayons and I gave them back only when she promised she wouldn't do it again. She's always looking at me."

"Do you like her?" Jane teased.

Caleb's eyes grew wide. "No! Girls are weird!"

When they arrived at home, Caleb set his lunch box and homework on the table, but Jane stopped him before he could make his way over to the backyard. "You and I are going to have a talk."

"No," Caleb groaned.

"It's either this or time out."

Time out, although it never lasted more than ten minutes, seemed like an eternity for Caleb, so he was willing to do whatever Jane said in order to avoid having to sit alone in the kitchen.

While sitting on the sofa with Jane, Caleb tried to distract himself by watching Bass slowly walk around, but it wasn't long before Jane began talking to him about girls and how his feelings are going to change as he grows up.

"Girls aren't weird," Jane began. "I'm a girl and you don't think I'm weird."

"You're not a girl," Caleb argued. "You're a mom."

She wanted to laugh, but Jane tried her best to remain serious. "Your mom and I raised you to be nice to girls. Do you ever see me being mean to your mom?"

"No," Caleb shook his head. "Because you're not supposed to be mean."

"That's right. If she's treating you in a way that you don't want to be treated, you need to tell her to stop and if she doesn't then you need to tell your teacher. Mackenzie is smaller than you and pulling her hair really hurts her."

Caleb cuddled up to his mom. "Okay, Ma."

"That's my boy," Jane said as she ruffled his curly hair. "And Caleb?"

"Hmm?"

"Someday, you might actually want to kiss a girl."

Just the thought of kissing a girl nearly made the color drain from Caleb's face and Jane was thrilled that she still had a few years left before she had to worry about her little boy having a crush on a girl and the possibility of him getting his heart broken.

_I want him to stay my little boy forever_, Jane thought, but if the past five years were an indicator of how quickly time passed, Jane knew it wouldn't be long before her little boy was all grown up.


	4. Game Day

**A/N: Thank you so much for your suggestions. I'll be getting to them all shortly. :)**

* * *

When Caleb asked his moms to let him play football, Jane was ecstatic, but Maura was apprehensive about their son playing contact sports. A list of his possible injuries ranging from scraped elbows to a concussion came to mind and, as much as Caleb pleaded, she wasn't going to change her mind.

"We can enroll him in flag football," Maura suggested.

"Flag football?" Caleb asked. "I'm gonna play _tackle _football."

"Tackle football is dangerous," Maura pointed out. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"Let him play tackle football," Jane insisted. "It'll be good for him to get involved in an activity that he enjoys. He'll make friends, learn good sportsmanship and…and…I have a statistic for you. Tackle football isn't as dangerous as you think. There are 12% less injuries in football than in soccer."

Maura was going to ask her to cite her source, but she knew this was an argument that she just wasn't going to win. Caleb looked at her with such pleading eyes that made it impossible for Maura to say no.

A month had passed and, in that time, Jane and Maura had signed their son up for football and bought him all the equipment he needed. Before the season started, Jane practiced with her son and taught him everything she knew about the sport, but all of Jane's efforts still didn't fully prepare him for playing with the other kids.

Caleb was in the Tiny-Mite division for ages five, six, and seven, but as the only five-year-old on his team, he felt as if he had to practice twice as much and be twice as dedicated just to catch up to the level his teammates were at.

Caleb put his all into the sport and, by the day of his first game, he felt more than ready to play.

"I love you," Maura said as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Caleb looked around to make sure the other boys weren't watching. "I love you, too, Mommy, but I'm an athlete now and I can't get kisses on the cheek." He held up his hand and then lifted Maura's up so he could high-five her. "We could give each other high-fives instead."

When it was time for both teams to take the field, Maura held tight to Jane's hand. They watched as their son stood proudly in position with his team, but Maura still worried about his safety. The other boys were older than him and outweighed him and tackle football was a dangerous sport regardless of what Jane had told her.

Jane affectionately squeezed Maura's hand. "He's going to be okay."

She wanted to believe her, but after a few minutes of playing Caleb tripped and fell to the ground. "Caleb!" Maura shouted. She got up from her seat and was about to run onto the field, but Jane wrapped her arms around her to hold her back.

"He just tripped while running," Jane tried to reassure her. "Let him walk it off. He's not even crying, Maur."

Caleb sat out during the next quarter, but when it was time for him to get back in the game, he played his hardest and showed just how tough he could be against the older boys.

His team ended up losing, but the loss didn't bother Caleb. He proudly showed off his football injury to his moms and didn't even flinch when Maura cleaned out the scrape on his knee with the first aid kit she had kept in her purse ever since Caleb started walking.

"I can't wait until next week," Caleb said as he sat in the backseat of the car during the drive to the team's pizza party.

"What's next week?" Maura asked.

"Caleb's next game," Jane reminded her. "Maur, this was only the first one. We have nine or ten more to go."

"Nine or ten?" Maura asked in disbelief.

Nine or ten games meant nine or ten more Saturdays of worrying about her little boy, but as long as he was enjoying himself, Maura was going to try her hardest not to let her worrying prevent Caleb from playing sports.

"I hope this leaves a cool scar," Caleb said as he looked at his bandaged knee.


End file.
